Testing and timing timepieces, especially watches, or “watch heads”, or mechanical timepiece movements, requires the object to be handled multiple times, in particular for chronometric tests, where the mechanism is tested in the different positions required for chronometer certification, but also in the closest possible conditions to wear. Chronometric testing and timing are frequently supplemented with other tests: water resistance, sensitivity to magnetic fields, to shocks, to temperature or otherwise.
It is therefore a matter of ensuring that these tests and checks are run in a reliable manner, while safeguarding the mechanism subjected to testing, and while allowing, if possible, for automated observations, possibly supplemented by adjustments or markings, while ensuring product traceability and the link between the object and any tests and adjustments carried out.
The quest for reliability is compatible with a quest for productivity, and therefore horological production must be adapted to manipulations with the most modern tools, with the highest possible degree of automation.